More than once I’ve handed over a $2 and gotten back change for a $20.
Haven’t been to the track in ages, I might take some there.
Niiiiiiiiiiiice!
I knew a guy who used to tip with Susan Bs or Sackies and always said “Here my good man: have a gold doubloon for your troubles.” He was memorable; I’ll give him that.
He got a lot of strange looks from immigrants whose English wasn’t that great to begin with and who had no idea what a gold doubloon might be.
My Dad gave me one “for luck” when I was a kid and I have kept it in my wallet (moving wallet to wallet as time went on) ever since but for me it is a memento of my Dad , not the fact that it was a $2 bill that matters.
Back in history, when Canada used to have actual $1 and $2 bills (how quaint!), I was told that $2 bills were not used by a “gentleman”, since they were for use at the racetrack. This was given as a reason why people did not use them. My impression was that this explanation varied by province and even by city.
One day the US will stop producing the $1 bill. It is getting more and more costly to keep this anachronism going. When you do, here is a small suggestion for getting people to accept this change (pun intended): Forget about getting people to get on board with the idea. Just start making lots of dollar coins and give them a fun name. Then stop making the dollar bill. This is the key part. People will bitch and moan and complain. Just smile and nod sympathetically. And stop making the dollar bill. Just let the ones in circulation wear out naturally. Remove them from circulation when they are too worn (as is currently done). Voila!
The problem in the US is that they made a bad design choice with the Susan B. Anthony dollar by making it almost the same size as the quarter-dollar. And every time they’ve tried to fix it, the vending machine industry lobbies for the mint to keep the new dollar the exact same size and weight as the old, failed one so they don’t have to update their coin mechanisms.
I love the British one pound coin, and how easy it is to pull one out of a pocketful of change, but until the Susies, Sacagaweas and the more recent President ones are all melted down and replaced by one that is a really distinct shape and weight, the US won’t have a dollar coin that is popular.
The size and weight of the dollar coins are just fine. The SBA “silver” color was a mistake, but the current brass ones are fine. I use them regularly, and it is no problem distinguishing them.
The problem is the paper dollar.
The size and weight of your Susan B. Anthony dollar (and Sacagawea dollar) is absolutely identical to the Canadian $1 coin. This did not prove to be a problem in Canada. (of course the gold colour of the loonie did help distinguish them from quarters)
At the time of the conversion to the dollar coin in Canada there was PLENTY of whining and complaining. There were LOTS of people who claimed they could not tell the difference between a quarter and a dollar coin. There were TONS of people who bitched about their heavy pockets.
And you know what? The folks responsible for the change-over just smiled and nodded sympathetically, and just slowly removed the paper dollars from circulation.
And it was done. And people stopped complaining eventually.
Sometimes (usually around Christmas) I’ll go to a bank or two and get some $2 bills and dollar coins. I then spend them to try to befuddle cashiers. I sometimes get “you shouldn’t spend those- they’re worth more than face value” from whomever is in line behind me.
I used to give my kids their allowances in twos. I remember the youngest saying “I like to find clerks who are under twenty and confuse them.” (He was probably six at the time; his distinguishing a cashier’s age was impressive)
And after “Lazy Sunday” came out, I taught them to reply to any bemused cashiers: “It’s all about the Jeffersons, bay-bee.”
There’s a teller at our bank that (even now that the kids are grown and gone) still remembers my, ummm, predilection, and will yell out “Mr. D, I’ve got twenty-five twos for you!”
Sell it to them, then.
Get yourself a pound coin. During my trips to England, I could always pull a pound coin out of a pocketful of change. It had a unique size, it has writing along the edges rather than milling, it even seemed to have a different tone as it clinked against other coins.
I had one for years and years, ever since I was little. I can’t even remember where I got it, but I just saved it because I never got them, so it seemed slightly special, and it’s only $2, so why not hang onto it? It’s not like hoarding a rare diamond. Now, I probably have a dozen of them and I don’t hesitate to spend them. My kid pet-sits for a neighbor who always pays her in $2 bills. And she pays her pretty well ($15/day) so it comes out to a lot of them. My daughter didn’t want to try to spend them in stores and risk causing a scene (lol), so I let her trade with me for normal denominations.
After a few of these currency exchanges, I became curious why on earth this neighbor had all these crisp $2 bills, so I did a quick search and found that apparently you can just go get them at the bank, and that that was indeed a thing some people do, because for whatever reason, they want to see them in increased circulation. So this must be what our neighbor does.
$2 dollar bills exist for two reasons: Toll booths and Best Buy cashiers.
Oh, and paying excise taxes at city hall. Of course, having rolls of Ikes and SBA’s work well there. Watching them trying to wrap their little minds around the fact that there are 20 Ikes to a roll vs. 25 SBA’s is fun!